“Not everyone is called to adopt, but everyone is called to do something,” says Mary Beth Chapman, Co-Founder of Show Hope, a nonprofit organization that aims to support families on their path to adoption. In today’s episode of The Momologist™, Mary Beth dives deep into the barriers that many families face when looking to adopt and how her foundation works to overcome them.

Mary Beth first entered into the adoption space in 1997 after she and her then eleven-year-old daughter Emily took a trip to Haiti with Compassion International. When they returned from the trip, Emily approached her parents, asserted that they had room at their table, and asked them to consider adopting another child. Mary Beth and her husband went on to not only adopt three daughters over the course of the next eight years, but also to use their platform to create Show Hope. While Mary Beth admits that she was the last hold out in their family when it came to adopting, as she was unsure whether she could love an adopted child like her own, she has found indescribable love, joy and purpose throughout the process. She now hopes to make this experience accessible to countless others through the work of the Show Hope foundation.

Tune into this week’s episode of The Momologist™ for a conversation about Mary Beth’s journey to adopting, the common barriers that families face throughout the process, and how Show Hope has worked to bring thousands of children and prospective adoptive parents together. If you have ever been interested in adoption or know someone who is considering it, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!

 

Quotes

• “So many families we heard saying back then, ‘We would consider this but we just don’t have the finances.’” (09:12-09:17)

• “We don’t really desire to go really wide with something. We desire to go deep and so after the financial barrier kind of got put in place by us giving adoption aid grants, then how can we step into even deeper things? Like you said, adoption doesn’t end when it’s finalized. It’s just beginning.” (12:10-12:28)

• “These kiddos that come home through adoption all have these invisible suitcases...early childhood trauma and early childhood attachment issues where if that attachment was wounded in relationship, we seek to heal that in relationships. And how can we give tools to parents to help in the process of raising a child who has been adopted?” (13:23-13:48)

• “I felt this heaviness. I was the last hold out. I was the one with all the doubts, all the fears. Can I love a child like this is my own? We did have other children. We weren’t adopting out of a home where we weren’t able to have children. We had 3, I call them natural and my adopted children supernatural because God just put this amazing family together.” (20:17-20:40) 

• “We call it gloriously hard. It’s glorious but there are some really hard pieces to it.” (21:33-21:38)

• “I don’t think everyone is called to adopt, but I think everyone is called to do something.” (23:15-23:20) 

 

Stats Mentioned:

• “Adoption is expensive. It can be anywhere for $25,000 to $50,000. That’s still true today.” (08:53-08:58)

• “We’ve cared for over 2700 children. We know for sure that 800 of those children have moved into adoptive families worldwide. We know that another third of those children have been made healthy enough to move back into an orphanage situation where they can move toward adoption.” (10:28-10:47)

• “We began stepping into what’s called medical care grants where you can apply every 3 years. You can receive three grants up until that child is 18 years old.” (11:43-11:52)

 

Notable Links

https://howtoadopt.org/

Hope For The Journey Conference:

https://showhope.org/our-work/pre-post-adoption-support/hope-for-the-journey/

 

Connect with Show Hope

Website: https://showhope.org/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/showhope/ 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ShowHope 

 

Connect with Mary Beth Chapman

Website: https://www.marybethchapman.com/

FB: https://www.